An Oxford, UK-based neurosurgeon who was one of the first scientists to publicly support the use of animals in medical research also condones their use to test cosmetics, according to reports. In an interview with the Guardian, Tipu Aziz said that people criticize cosmetics but he explained that self-beautification has been going for centuries. “If [animal testing is] proven to reduce suffering through animals tests, it's not wrong to use them,” said Aziz in the interview.

Prof Aziz has been a vocal supporter of the use of animals. He and another Oxford scientist, John Stein, a neurophysiologist, recently faced animal rights extremists to speak in favor of the building of a controversial £18m (US$31.5 million) research laboratory. According to reports, Aziz uses monkeys in Parkinson's disease research and spoke in front of several hundred people at a rally in Oxford organized by Pro-Test, a campaign group set up by supporters of animal research. The use of animals in cosmetics research was banned in the UK in 1998 and will be illegal across the EU by 2009.